CHARACTERISTIC BIRDS. 
183 
reflected in the latter. They belong to our woods and 
plains, as the Redstart does to the slate-roofed cottage, 
whose ridge it adorns, or as the Warbler belongs to our 
garden. The South possesses other songsters, and the 
following Warblers dwell there : — -S. pyrophthalma, S. pro¬ 
vincialis, S. melanocephala , S. sarda , S. curruca , S. con- 
spicillata, and S. subalpina — tiny lovely creatures, dwarfs 
among the melodious throng, as the brushwood of the 
low forests are dwarfs among trees. These are as 
typical of Southern Europe as the former are of the 
North: anybody who has seen one of them will imme¬ 
diately recognize the whole family. Of the remaining 
singing birds of Europe we may boldly uphold the 
following as peculiarly ours:—the Garden Warbler 
(.Hypolais hortensis ), our Mocking-bird, and several of the 
Sedge Warblers ( Galamodyta ), &c. There is another bird 
which strikes me as being particularly characteristic of 
the southern portion of Europe,—I mean the Azure¬ 
winged Magpie ( Cyanopica Coohii ), a denizen of the ever¬ 
green oak groves, I might say the true child of this tree. 
Its plumage is in splendid contrast with the foliage of the 
latter, its whole life is passed in this tree, and it cannot 
be thought of but in connection with it. The different 
species of Wood Grouse may also here be mentioned; the 
mighty Capercaillie is a splendid creature, which may by 
the uninitiated be regarded at first sight as foreign to 
Europe, for its plumage does not correspond in colouring 
with that usually predominant at home; it is, however, 
thoroughly in keeping with the dark tops of the larch 
and fir. The extremely important law of Nature which 
seeks to make the colour of an animal coincide with 
the locality in which it lives does not appear to have been 
carried out in the case of this powerful bird: it is quite 
